Supreme Court grants bail to blasphemy accused Christian

Supreme Court of Pakistan grants bail to a Christian accused of committing blasphemy. The respondent, Adnan Prince spent more than three years behind the bars. On Wednesday February 1, a three-member bench of the apex court granted bail against a bail bond worth Rs300,000.

The bench of the apex court was headed by Justice Dost Muhammad Khan; while the defense counsel of the respondent was led by Asma Jahangir, who maintained before the court that Adnan had spent three years and three months behind the bars whereas, the case should have been decided within two years. She blamed that the case had already been dealt with unjustifiable delaying tactics.

Back in November 2013, Adnan was accused of committing blasphemy and Sections 295-A, 295-B and 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code were invoked against him. Advocate Nadeem Anthony, one of the defense counsels for the respondent stated that Adnan in presently in Lahore district jail.

Advocate Nadeem Anthony told the media that Adnan was accused of committing blasphemy he uttered his remarks against leader of a religious outfit JD. On court’s orders, sections 295-A and 295-B had already been dropped from the case while the horrendous terror of 295-C, carrying capital punishment looms large.

On October 7, 2013, Adnan Prince was sitting at his shop in Lahore. While he was sitting at the shop he claimed to have found a book titled “I asked the Bible why the Qur’ans were set on fire” written by leader of JD, a politico-religious outfit.

While he was still reading the book, his Muslim colleague Abid Mehmood, spotted him and next day, approached the local police station claiming that Adnan had allegedly “marked several pages… with abusive words against the Prophet of Islam.”

Greatly fearful, Adnan fled, but he claimed he did not commit blasphemy. “I found the book quite erroneous, giving incorrect information about Christianity. So I wrote comments with Biblical references in several places, but no abusive language was used.” Following his disappearance, police arrested his brother, mother, aunt and uncle which forced him to hand himself over to the police. Adnan faced serious threats to his life from the extremists who constantly demanded his death.